In addition to his performance and recording career, McInnes taught extensively at institutions and festivals across the US and abroad
The US violist Donald McInnes has died at the age of 85. He enjoyed a prolific career of performance, recording and teaching in the US and abroad for many decades.
As a performer, McInnes appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchetra and l’Orchestre National de France, among others. He was a resident member of the Camerata Pacifca for many years, and collaborated with numerous major artists, including Leonard Bernstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Lynn Harrell and Yo-Yo Ma.
He recorded for the Columbia, RCA, Deutsche Grammophon, Angel/EMI, and Laurel labels. He premiered many new works for viola, including those commissioned for him by William Schuman, Vincent Persichetti, William Bergsma, Robert Suderberg, Paul Tufts, and Thomas Pasatieri.
McInnes taught widely at schools across the US, including the University of Michigan, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, the University of Washington and had a long association with the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. He served as guest professor at the Royal Conservatory in Barcelona, the Shanghai Conservatory and the Central Conservatory in Beijing.
Violist Cynthia Phelps shared her experience of learning from McInnes in The Strad January 2006 issue: ’Don makes his students really proud of themselves: he gets them to stand with good posture, feet planted, and to perform in a way that convinces the audience,’ she said.
’I see it in his students when they come for orchestral auditions. He encourages the psychological thing of feeling your power and strength. Some people thrived, some people hated it, but for me it was something that I was looking for.’
He was named the 2004 American String Teachers Association Teacher of the Year. Internationally, he taught at the Banff Centre in Canada, the Menuhin Schools in both the UK and Switzerland, and the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies in the UK, as well as festivals at Interlochen, St. Barts, Marlboro, and Sunflower, and the International String Workshop.
McInnes was faculty emeritus for the Music Academy of the West, where he taught since 1982 and was an attended the academy from 1954 to 1956. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012 and continued to teach and give masterclasses after he retired from performance.
Read: Violist Cynthia Phelps on studying with William Primrose and Donald McInnes
Read: Masterclass: Donald McInnes on Berlioz’s Harold in Italy
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